


Taken

by LibraryMage



Series: Vampire AU [3]
Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Ezra Bridger Needs a Hug, Gen, Kidnapping, Psychic Abilities, Seventh Sister is a Mean Person, Whumptober
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-05
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:40:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26827498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LibraryMage/pseuds/LibraryMage
Summary: The vampire who bit Ezra finally tracks him down.
Relationships: Ezra Bridger & Seventh Sister
Series: Vampire AU [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1940905
Comments: 2
Kudos: 19





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Whumptober prompt: caged (use of this trope doesn't appear till the final chapter and I'm interpreting it very loosely)
> 
> warning for: child abuse, parental death, kidnapping, restraint

After glancing around the room one last time, Ezra zipped up the duffle bag that sat on his bed. Settling it on his shoulder, he carried it out of his room and dropped it beside the front door, nudging it with his toe as if it would do something. The bag held about a week’s worth of clothes, a few books, and the stuffed bunny he’d had since he was a baby. They were only taking the bare minimum with them for now.

After two months of searching, his mother had finally found a job and a place to live in another city, and they were leaving tonight. Once they got out of here, all of this would be behind them. They hoped.

Guilt gnawed at the inside of Ezra’s stomach as he stared down at the backpacks that lay on the floor. None of this would even be happening if it wasn’t for him. His parents were uprooting their entire lives to protect him from someone who hadn’t shown her face in two months. If he had just fought harder, maybe…

A hand on his shoulder jolted him out of his thoughts. His dad stood beside him, looking down at him with concern.

“Are you ready?” he asked.

Ezra nodded.

Just as his mom set a small box beside Ezra’s bag, there was a sharp knock at the door. Ezra grabbed his dad’s hand, clutching it tightly as his mother inched over to the door and looked through the peephole. After a moment, she let out a quiet sigh of relief, the tension easing out of her shoulders.

“It’s not her,” she whispered. That didn’t make Ezra feel any better. With each second he stared at the door, an unsettling feeling crept further and further up his spine.

The knock came again, harder this time. His mom jumped, backing away from the door.

“Open up!” a man’s voice called. “We know you’re in there.”

His mother grabbed his arm, pulling Ezra closer to her as she backed away from the door. Ezra looked up at her, terror clawing its way from his stomach up through his throat.

“Don’t open it,” he whispered.

There was a loud _bang_ at the door, causing it to shake on its hinges. Ezra yelped, flinching against his mom’s side.

“Mira,” his father said. “Take Ezra. Go out the fire escape. I’ll –”

There was another _bang_ and the door flew open before he could say another word. Three men stormed into the room, one of them staying in the doorway as the other two drew closer. As Ezra’s mother shoved him behind her, he couldn’t help but notice that his parents seemed oddly calm. They were afraid, he could tell, but they seemed… prepared? Like they had been expecting this.

Ezra peered around his mom’s side just in time to see one of the men pull something from beneath his jacket. His eyes widened, his breath catching in his throat as he saw that it was a wooden stake. They were vampire hunters. His parents had warned him about them. It was the reason he had to stay shut away inside all the time. And they’d found him anyway.

“We’re here for the kid,” the man said. “Just hand him over and neither of you will get hurt.”

Without saying a word, his father threw himself at the man, tackling him to the ground. His mother grabbed his arm again and shoved him ahead of her toward the back window. There was a shout, a thud of one body slamming into another, and his mom’s hand disappeared from his arm. Ezra turned and froze as he saw that one of the hunters had grabbed her, wrenching her arms behind her back. Another had his father pinned down on the floor. And the third was heading straight toward him.

“Ezra, _run!_ ” his mom shouted.

But Ezra couldn’t move. He couldn’t _move_ and the hunter was getting closer and closer and –

“Now!”

His mother’s frantic shout was like a physical push. Ezra turned and ran just as the man got close enough to grab him. With a burst of inhuman speed, he bolted toward the kitchen window and the fire escape that lay just outside of it. The metal was still slick from the rain earlier in the day as Ezra scaled down the ladder until he was close enough to the ground to let himself drop.

His knees buckled as he landed on his feet. For a moment, he just stood there, staring upward, watching the window and willing his parents to appear. Maybe they could get away. Maybe the hunters would let them go to focus on him.

But seconds later, a different figure appeared on the fire escape. The hunter who’d nearly grabbed him. Ezra’s eyes widened, terror gripping him as he forced himself to run once again. He tore down the alleyway, not looking back as he turned the corner and fled.


	2. Chapter 2

_They should be here by now._

Ezra had been sitting on the bench for hours, not moving even as night had fallen around him. This park was the safe place his parents had decided they would meet if anything ever happened. If _this_ ever happened.

He shivered, even though it wasn’t that cold out, hugging his arms around himself as he rocked back and forth. The longer he sat here, the more scared he got. If his parents had gotten away from the hunters, they would have come to get him by now. But even knowing that, Ezra couldn’t bear the thought of moving from this spot. What if he left and his parents came looking for him but couldn’t find him?

A quiet whimper rose from Ezra’s throat as he remembered the sight of his parents being held back by the hunters. If anything had happened to them, it was _his fault_. They all would have been safe if he hadn’t been bitten in the first place.

A shadow flickered at the edge of his vision as someone sat down on the bench beside him. Ezra shrank in on himself, inching away from the figure.

“I’m waiting for my parents,” he said before the stranger could ask him if he was okay.

“I don’t think they’ll be coming.”

Ezra couldn’t breathe.

He knew that voice. It was the voice that had haunted his nightmares and every waking moment for the past two months. Slowly, his hands trembling, he looked up and found himself staring into the face of the woman who’d bitten him.

Ezra lunged to his feet, but before he could run, the woman’s hand darted out and closed around his wrist, dragging him back onto the bench. He struggled as her arm slid around his shoulders, pulling him close against her side, but her grip was too strong for him to break free.

“I wouldn’t try that if I were you, sweetie,” she said. Ezra whimpered, squirming as he tried to pull away. Her free hand closed around his so tightly he thought his fingers would break. “You don’t want to attract attention right now.”

At her words, Ezra felt a sharp pull inside his head, like someone yanking on a dog’s leash. A strange fogginess entered his mind and he found himself rooted to the spot. He wasn’t even sure if he _wanted_ to stand up anymore.

“I’m sorry it took me so long to find you,” she said, her voice sickly sweet. “Those _humans_ did too good a job of hiding you from me.”

“Wh-what did you do to them?” Ezra’s voice shook as he fought to clear away that fog. _Move_ , he told himself. _Just move! Run!_

“ _I_ didn’t do anything,” the woman said. Her grip on his hand grew tighter until Ezra gasped, feeling the bones in his fingers creak under the pressure. “But you won't be seeing them again.”

_No_ , Ezra thought, somehow knowing what she was going to say next. _No, no,_ no!

“They’re dead.” Her voice was quiet, barely more than a whisper, too close to Ezra’s ear. “Those hunters killed them because of _you_.”

“No,” Ezra muttered. He tried to pull his hand from hers, but she kept holding on. “Y-you’re lying!”

Even as he said it, he somehow _knew_ she was telling the truth, or at least what she thought the truth was. His parents weren’t coming for him. They were gone. Dead. And, just like everything that had happened for the past two months, it was his fault.

The woman stood, her hand still clutched tight around Ezra’s, pulling him to his feet.

“Even if I was, it wouldn’t matter,” the woman said. “You’re coming with me now.”

“No!” Ezra screamed, fighting to break free of her grip. He frantically looked around, searching for anyone who could help him. It was early enough there were still some people out on the street, but none of them were close enough to realize anything was wrong. Drawing in a deep breath, Ezra screamed as loud as he could.

“ _Help!_ ”

She yanked him closer, pressing her hand over his mouth as she pinned him against her chest. Ezra scratched at her arm as she held him tightly, raising her other hand over his head.

Pain burst across his skull as she struck him, making his vision blur. As he slumped against her, she hit him again and everything went dark.


	3. Chapter 3

Ezra’s head was pounding as he slowly opened his eyes. He blinked, trying to make sense of what he was seeing. Stairs, he realized, as his thoughts adjusted for the weird angle. He was being carried down a flight of stairs. The thing pressing into his stomach was someone’s shoulder that he’d been slung over.

It was _her._

He kicked frantically as the realization hit him. But the woman’s stride didn’t break at all. Ezra dug his nails into her back, scratching as hard as he could. With an angry growl, she hurled him off of her. Ezra cried out as he hit the stairs and tumbled down them, his head slamming against the old, creaking wood until he came to a stop, slumped against a door at the bottom of the steps.

Ezra staggered to his feet, his head spinning. The woman leapt over the remaining few steps, grabbing his arm as she landed beside him.

“Let go!” Ezra shouted, scratching at her arm with his free hand. “Someone _help!”_

The woman let out a low, sinister chuckle as she slid aside a deadbolt on the door.

“No one here is going to help you,” she said. “They know you belong to me.”

She shoved the door open, dragging Ezra through it. The room beyond the door was empty, its floors and walls made of dull gray cement. Two window wells were set so high up in the walls that Ezra knew they were in a basement. The windows themselves had been painted black to block out the light, bars bolted in place over them.

“Welcome to your new home,” the woman said with a cruel smile. She dragged him to the far end of the room and threw him to the floor. He tried to stand, but she kicked him in the side. Ezra cried out, curling in on himself as the woman crouched down beside him.

There was a scraping sound and a clank of metal against metal as pressure closed around Ezra’s ankle. Shaking with sheer terror, Ezra forced himself to sit up and saw that a cuff had been fastened around his ankle. A chain led from it to the wall, where it was bolted into the concrete. Ezra grabbed the chain, wrenching at it, but it didn’t budge.

“Don’t bother,” the woman said. “That chain is pure silver. I wouldn’t touch it for too long if I were you.”

As soon as she said it, a sharp tingling spread across Ezra’s palm. Within seconds, it began to burn. He yelped and let go, drawing his hand close to his chest.

“Wh-who _are_ you?” Ezra asked, his voice breaking as tears began welling up in his eyes. “Why are you doing this?”

The woman’s long, spidery fingers came up under Ezra’s chin, tilting his head up until he was looking directly into her eyes. He tried to look away, but her grip tightened around his face, holding him still.

“To you,” she said, “I am _Mother_. Understand?”

Ezra glared at her. He wasn’t going to call her that, no matter what she did to him. She just smiled, her fingers gently trailing across his skin as she released his face.

“And I’ve been looking for someone with abilities like yours for a long time.” She tucked a lock of his hair behind his ear as she said it, and a sharp pang shot through Ezra’s chest at the gesture. He couldn’t even count how many times his mom had done the exact same thing. And now she was _gone_. She was probably _dead_ and he would _never_ see her again and he was trapped here with a _vampire_ who’d _bitten_ him and made him _like her_ and –

“You and I are alike, little one,” she said. “Even before I was turned, I had powers like yours.”

“I don’t have –”

She raised a hand, and Ezra snapped his mouth shut immediately.

“Don’t lie to me,” she said, a sharp spike of irritation flashing through the air around her. “You can feel other people’s emotions. You can even control them if you try hard enough. You’ve always known there was something different about you. Your parents knew it, too, and they just let you believe you were a normal, sensitive little boy.”

Ezra dragged himself away from her until he was against the wall, staying quiet as he pulled his knees up to his chest. He wasn’t about to admit that she was right, that he’d always known there was something more going on than just being attentive to other people’s feelings and having that strong intuition his parents always talked about.

“My powers are similar,” the woman said. “But unlike you, I feed off of others’ emotions.”

Ezra swallowed nervously, pressing himself back against the wall. Nothing she was saying explained why she was doing this to him.

“But my powers need physical contact to work,” she said. “Yours don’t, and you’re powerful enough to reach people from miles away. You are going to help me sustain myself.”

“N-no,” Ezra said, shaking his head. Even if he knew how to do what she wanted, he wouldn’t. She’d hurt him, ruined his life, gotten his parents killed. He’d never help her.

The smile returned to her face and a terrifying chill crept up Ezra’s spine.

“You won’t have a choice,” she said. “I’m your creator. I can _make_ you do it.”

She reached out, cupping Ezra’s chin in her hand once more.

“Now,” she said, her eyes boring into his, “I think it’s time you got some practice using those powers of yours.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well. Now you guys know why Seven wanted Ezra in the first place.


End file.
